Dark Horses Chapter 1
by Sam.Arronax
Summary: Yes, I'm writing a pony story for Halloween. Why? Because I like the show, and is anything really more creepy than a bunch of cute, cuddly, children's characters becoming Zombies and eating each other?
1. Chapter 1

I'd like to preface this with saying that as of writing this story, I'm likely to lose a few watchers. I don't blame you, some people just never really gave the new show a shot, and you're welcome to your opinion. I used to do that too, opine without looking. But this show, this deceptively kid-oriented yet gloriously written TV show, changed that, and somewhat inspired me to write in the first place.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't really a brony, but I'm still not quite convinced I am. It's a good show, it's got good stories and jokes and references, but how devoted am I really to it? Am I like this fandom, this… I hesitate to say cult, as that has so very many negative connotations, but these people, all with a distinct mindset?

You out there reading this, I know there's a few of you out there in the world and reading my stories, you must be doing something right. There's certainly quite a lot of you, and consider this: I'm not sure how it started, but I'm fairly sure it was something along the lines of someone sitting down and watching the pilot with their excited mothers and sisters and such, and then having the guts, the sheer bravery to post on a Tumblr or Deviantart post something along the lines of "Hey, this is actually really good. You should try watching it."

And then they had just the right friends to actually try it themselves, and then post it among their circles of friends, and so on and so forth until suddenly Tumblr and 4chan and the internet in general exploded with art and fan music and such, inspiring just as much hate from those that would call them homosexual for watching a "girl's show." It's really not, but I know I couldn't convince you otherwise.

I'd just like to state this. It started as that, but since learning of their fan base, they've changed scripts and even the general tone of the show, and now it's so much more. Because we found a part of the show we liked and showed it off, and it now fits that new mold.

I can't wait for Season three.

(Oh yeah, and this story has Zombies. Pony Zombies. If that'll get you to read this after getting this far, you were going to anyway. If you don't want to read about Pony Zombies however, than you probably don't want to read further.)

(Zomponies? Ponzombies? Is there already a name for this?)

Dark Horses

Chapter 1

Nightmare Night was in full swing. Even though Twilight Sparkle and the other elements of Harmony had defeated Nightmare Moon two years prior, habits died hard. Plus, there was candy. Who in their right mind didn't want candy?

The costumes also ranged from the stuff that particularly resourceful ponies had rolled into town and sold to homemade and amazing. Take a popular character like, say, Daring Do. There were costumes made from fake fabric that would hold together barely long enough to get it back home, whereupon it would fall apart and be patched back together with sticking-tape. Then there were the Ponies who found a pith helmet, shirt, and shorts that both happened to be khaki-coloured, and they would use that as their costume, which most older ponies did. (Older being not a filly or young Stallion anymore.)

Than there were the hardcore costumers, who found exactly the right fabric and checked any available paintings and drawings or other images one at a time to check that they had the stitching and colours exactly right, and would spend weeks hunting for a particular accessory that tied the whole thing together, solidifying who they were dressed up as. You could always tell that they looked for the smallest opportunity to go out in said costume, the flimsiest excuse to go out and compare with all the other hardcore costumers and argue about "Canon" this and "Plot hole" that.

Twilight Sparkle was, of course, one of the latter. She always dressed in the same costume, every year, as Starswirl the Bearded, and was proud about how she got every detail right. Back in Canterlot, she'd had plenty of ponies to compare her costumes with, and never spoke with otherwise. It would have been discouraged, but it was also the only time she wasn't studying, or generally reading, or building the costume itself. In fact, it was really one of the only times she had willingly gone out and socialized, so her parents and brother and Princess Celestia all tolerated the strange devotion to getting every detail precisely right.

In Ponyville though, the only other ponies that took it just as seriously were a few otherwise nonsocial ponies, Rarity, and Spike. He wasn't a pony, not as such, but he really honestly did try. This year, he had even tolerated Angel long enough to work on a costume that would confuse everypony else. Which was why Spike was in a Bunny costume.

Again, the festivities were in full swing. Applejack had, with all of her friends' help, managed to breed Apple trees that produced Apples all year long, and was even now handing out Cider.

Rainbow Dash was in her Wonderbolts Jumpsuit, pulling loop-the-loops and other tricks in the little light there was. Rarity had taken up a strange fascination with Queen Chrysalis, and had gone to great lengths to replicate the various creepy details, going full out on makeup to replicate the various holes in her hooves and horn, and had built insectoid wings that were distressingly fragile. She had even managed to rope Snips and Snails into going as changelings so the costume would be complete. Everyone agreed that had all the changelings looked like their costumes, they would not have been that big a problem.

Fluttershy had actually been coaxed out of her house with promises of candy and that no one would jump out at her. To ensure this, Twilight had gotten Angel to run interference ahead, dressed as Spike. Which was incredibly confusing to anyone who looked under the purple mask.

Even Pinkie Pie had borrowed the Mayors old costume, something called a "Clown" that no one understood but was utterly terrified of. If you were particularly unlucky, she would honk her snout at you. Walking as a group, they were thoroughly enjoying themselves in the carnival-esque atmosphere. As they passed the Cakes' house, (Raggedy Ann/Andy again) Pinkie snagged a cupcake from the tray outside and bit down on the red frosting as messily as possible, smearing her makeup and the frosting all over her face. The finally made it to the stage that had been set up for the Mayors' speech, and settled in.

"Welcome to this years Nightmare Night, everypony. Quiet down, if you please, yes you back there. Now, I believe that before we continue our tradition of the Storytelling at the Statue, we should announce that Nightmare- Sorry, sorry. Old habits die hard. Princess Luna will be joining us and helping Zecora with the visuals along with the story. Everyone give a nice big welcome back to- er… Pardon me, who are you?" Bafflingly enough, there was a pony onstage already, who was very definitely not Princess Luna.

"Pardon me, do you think you could get off the stage? You see, I'm somewhat in the middle of a speech here, and you're… What's your name, I don't remember you that well… Sorry, terrible with faces, what's your Cutie Mark…? Ah, yes, I remember now." The whole time this prime example of deductive reasoning was occurring, the Pony in question stumbled, as if permanently unsure of their footing, towards the Mayor. Her costume was tattered, bloodstained. No one could really understand what it was supposed to be, but something in Twilights' head clicked, and she remembered something buried deep within her spell books.

Look now, Cherry Blossom, you can't just wander onto stage like this! I understand you have a wonderful costume and all, but so does everyone else! I mean, look at that! Those cuts and scratches look authentic, and that tear in your flank is properly gruesome! Those muscles look almost… oh. Oh dear." The realization slammed into Twilight and the Mayor like the friendship Express had jumped its tracks. "Mayor, don't! She's a…!"

But it was too late. The pony, her name no longer Cherry Blossom, lurched a final step and sank her previously herbivorous jaws into the Mayors neck. Bones crushed, blood squirted, and the Mayor slowly sank to the wooden floor of the stage, breathing her last, but gurgling all the way down. The Zombie pony kept chewing as the audience watched on, horrified. How could a pony be eating MEAT? Pony meat? It was inhumane, unponylike!

With a small chorus of moans, more Zombie ponies appeared from behind the stage, limping and lurching towards the suddenly unfrozen crowd. There was a mad scramble away from the front rows, to escape the monsters. The Pony that was previously Cherry Blossom dropped the Mayors corpse, which landed with a heart-stopping SLUDD as it landed next to the fallen microphone. More observant ponies would have noticed the Mayor's head trying to move again, but the rest of it's body would not respond, not with the spine severed so brutally like that.

In an undignified stampede, the ponies at the back fled, escaping and clearing way for the ponies seated in front of them. Fluttershy locked up completely, terrified and sobbing to herself in the fetal position. Twilight grabbed her friend with her magic, and lifted her onto the roof, Angel riding along. Then she started blinking back and forth, teleporting the more rational Ponies onto the roof with her, Applejack first. As it happened, the roof was that of the Sugarcube Corner, and Applejack was able to open the window and start shoving every pony that Twilight blinked up through.

After Twilight could no longer go back down safely, she entered the house herself through the window, shutting it behind her just in time for Pinkie to bolt past and nail it shut with a firm layer of wooden planks. Looking around the deceptively large room at the top of the building, she saw that every other window had already been boarded shut. Mr. and Mrs. Cake had smashed the stairs leading to the ground floor, leaving the stairs to the second and third floors intact. They, and all the ponies Twilight had rescued, were all huddled in the room. There was the rest of the Mane Six, obviously the Cakes, Derpy, DJ PON-3, The Cutie Mark Crusaders, and roughly ten other ponies that she couldn't remember the names of. She had grabbed the Royal Guards designated to guard Princess Luna (Who had escaped already, presumably to do damage control and check Canterlot.) as well as her brother, Shining Armor. Seeing he had made it in safely, she hugged him so hard his steel armor creaked.

"Whoa, Twily. Careful there, I need to breathe at some point!" She hesitated, but let go. "Are you alright? You're not bitten, are you? I read about these a long time ago. The smallest bite, the smallest scratch, and before too long you're one of them." She motioned, with tears in her eyes, back to the window, where even through the wood and glass, they could hear bloodcurdling screams echo through the night. He stared at the planks covering it for a second, before looking back at Twilight, then her friends. "Are the rest of you alright? Like she said, is anyone bitten?" A resounding chorus of "No"s and "Nay's came from the crowd, with Applejack interjecting "Ain't nobody bit!"

Twilight finally noticed the one pony she hadn't seen before. It was a small Orange Earth Stallion, with a Wrench for his cutie mark. "Who are you?" He was surprised that someone was actually talking to him. He looked around, before noticing Twilight looking at him.

"Oh! Err, Tinkertoy, madam. I fix things. And build things. I live here." Twilight looked somewhat dubious, as he was entirely unfamiliar. "I, um. I built Pinkamena's "Party Cannon", as she calls it?" Pinkie hopped over Twilight, landing next to him. "I'll vouch for him!" Twilight looked around the rest of the room. "Alright, as long as someone does." She walked up and stared out of a slit Pinkie had left open in the new wall, previously a window. She couldn't see much, but what she could see wasn't good. There were several fires throughout the town, and any Pegasus that could was fleeing for the sky, presumably cloudsdale.

"We need to get to my Library. The Balloon we have there, we could hook up a larger basket and fill it with Hydrogen for extra lift. We could get to Cloudsdale until the Zombies are gone." She turned to Pinkie. "Pinkie, I assume you have a bunch of Hydrogen for Balloons about here… somewhere." As if on cue, she pulled a metal canister from behind herself. Somehow.

"…Good. Now, I don't think Rarity or I can blink anymore, not after all that. So, we'll need another way across the rooftops. Any ideas?"

(I'm actually gonna end it here for now. There shouldn't be many chapters of this, but I would like to hear ideas from everyone in PMs or Reviews. How will they escape? YOU DECIDE! Well, actually I'll just use the best idea someone comes up with. Don't worry, you'll get credit. Also, I'd like to hear thoughts about this chapter. I did it freestyle, just train of thought on a whim, and had to look up a lot of stuff. Tell me what you think! It inspires me to write more quicker, and better quality at that!)


	2. Chapter 2

Dark Horses Chapter 2

(Glad I always have a plan B. Somebody respond, damn you, or I'll think I hallucinated you all in the first place.)

"What about the Friendship Express?" Sootaloo asked. Twilight looked at her, than looked back out of the slit and to the left, towards the almost sickeningly cute train. It was still functioning, best as she could tell, but there were a lot of zomponies around it. "It's a good idea, but we need a way to get rid of all those zombies." Tinkertoy chipped in at this point. "How do you kill them? Because I could probably build something that would work, If I don't have it already."

Lyra Heartstrings had already walked to his workbench and picked something up with her hooves. Somehow. I don't know, I'm not a pony. She turned around and held it up to show everyone else. "Can I use this Crossbow?" Tinkertoy was about to say no, but then something started pounding on the door to the shop below. It wasn't panicked; it wasn't as if someone was running from something, it was more like a non-rhythmic "Thump. Thump…Thump."

She stared at the blocked stairs, before pulling the string back and loading the Crossbow. She stood on her hind legs and held the weapon with her front two, appearing almost human, if anypony knew what one looked like. Everypony stared at her, than at the workbench with all matter of strange devices and tools, at least some were had to be of some use.

There was a bit of a rush to grab something. By the time it finished, everypony had something would, if not kill outright, sting quite a bit. Tinkertoy himself grabbed the last thing on the table: A Crowbar. He had been using it to pry stuff open, obviously, and would need it for the windows anyway.

"Are we ready?" Twilight asked, herself holding a brick she'd pulled off the table with her magic. It levitated, in a quite unusual state for a brick. Fluttershy had, with consoling from everyone (Mostly Spike), calmed down incrementally. Spike (Small knife, the only thing he could hold on the table) had managed to get her to grip a hammer. Hopefully she wouldn't have to use it.

"Ready as we'll ever be to kill stuff. Not very." Rainbow Dash (Classic board-with-a-nail-in-it) said, and the rest of the ponies quickly agreed. Pinkie had reached under a stool and pulled out a baseball bat. Thinking about it, Twilight realized that Pinkie had been prepared for this all along, Instantly fleeing to Sugarcube Corner and boarding up the windows and generally Zombie-proofing the place.

Tinkertoy nodded, and motioned to Pinkie, who immediately produced a dynamite-plunger pulled straight from a TV serial, and slammed it down. The small, but well-placed explosives blew a window right out of its moorings, boards and all. It flew across the street, smacking an errant Zompony and splattering it on the street. Rainbow Dash zoomed out, and landed on the roof to keep watch for Zomponies.

All in all, they managed to make it across most of the rooftops fine. Pinkie creating an instant bridge with spare boards from rooftop to thatched rooftop whenever the gaps were too large for the non-winged ponies to jump. They were roughly a block from the train station when they heard the screams. Peering over the edge of a house's roof, they saw a truly grisly scene.

Apparently somepony had the same idea of using the train to escape, but had failed miserably when the conductor had shown up, completely zombified already. It was not easy for multiple ponies to leave all at once, even less so when there were more zomponies outside. Once again, there had been a massive slaughter wherein the ponies had crowded into a small space and couldn't decongest the crowd in time. Like a ripple of water in a pond, first one pony had been bitten, then they bit another, before long only the ones closest to the doors had escaped, with the rest being bottled up inside.

Berry Punch (Broken Cider Bottle) glanced at Applejack (Heavy Boots). "Maybe we should find another way to get there?" Applejack looked back at the small crowd of ponies. "Sorry, sugar. Looks like Pinkies outta boards, and the Library's too far away from any other rooftops anyhow. We gotta figure something out." Octavia pulled herself over Twilight's shoulder and asked "Indeed, but even if we can get on board, how can we start a train? The Conductor appears to be in a somewhat less …cooperative mood than before."

"I um… I can drive it. Or at least get it moving. How hard can it be?" Tinkertoy had looked around from behind the brick chimney to mention this small fact. "How hard can it be? Just put in some coal, get it heated up, release the brakes, and start moving." Twilight looked back around at the train. "Alright. We can get it moving, but it'll take a little bit to get heated up. Where can we sit that we can get to and escape from when we get to the library?" Lyra looked at the train, and snapped her… hooves?

"The roof! We can all hang on, and as long as we don't go too fast, we should be fine." Tinkertoy looked back at it. "Fair enough. But I shall need someone to protect me while I heat it up and start it going." Shining Armor, stepping carefully on rafters to avoid falling through the straw, coughed before speaking. "Koff… I'll…I'll cover you as long as you need." Twilight was starting to get concerned.

"Are you alright? You don't look so healthy…" He jumped, and quickly said "NO! Uh, no, no. I'm fine. Don't worry about me, Twily." But even as he said it, he was hiding something on his foreleg. "What are you hide…ing…Oh Celestia." It hit her. Much stronger than the initial realization of zombies, this one could only be compared to the very moon slamming into Equestria, for that was the only thing that could compare in world-ending importance. Shining Armor had dodged her question back in Sugarcube Corner, instead checking everyone else's welfare, to ensure that they weren't bitten.

Like him.  
"Oh Celestia, oh Celestia, oh Celestia…" Twilight was getting dizzy, she couldn't see straight, she was…

"Catch her!" Somepony hissed, but it was just a little late. She fainted, falling on her flank, right into the thatched roof. Correction: Right though the thatched roof. She fell, and in her mind she was falling forever, nothing registering but one thought. "My brother has been bitten. He's going to die, my beloved brother is going to die, I can't handle this, he's going to die and then come back as one of them I can't handle thisIcan'thandlethisIcan'thandlethis…" And then she hit the floor inside the house, a hardwood floor that stopped her cold, and knocked her out entirely, stopping all thought for a little while.

"After her!" Shining armor yelled, all stealth abandoned now that the Zomponies had heard the thump and were even now coming to source for food. Glancing at each other, the two royal guards broke through the roof themselves, landing in between Twilight Sparkle and the few Zomponies who had already entered. One with a distinct reddish theme to his armor had two weapons, a bow that could be fired even with a hoof, and a Halberd in case one got too close. The other, wearing a harness and simple armor as opposed to the gaudy gold that most wore wielded only a massive battleaxe, capable of dismembering a Zompony with a single swing. Together, they defended Twilight from the Zombies as the rest used the distraction to make a run for the train.

Shining armor pinked up Twilight himself, and all four of them ran to the train. Dash and DJ PON-3 had already closed the closest cabin door to the boiler, protecting Tinkertoy as he heated up the engine to go. Even with a little preheating by the previous Conductor, it would take longer than anypony really wanted to. He looked around the cabin, the one place that controlled everything on board the train, from speed to direction to internal lighting. "So many buttons…" he muttered in awe.

Meanwhile, Derpy had climbed to her usual place when she would ride the train, and was watching from above. Fluttershy hid with her, and noticed she had been looking carefully at everypony. "Are…are you looking for anyone? I hope whoever it is isn't a …Zompony." She shuddered. "No, it's The.. I mean, Time Turner. It's not like him, he would normally be all over this, and would have wanted my help…"

Below, Dash and DJ PON-3 (Hereafter referred to as Vinyl Scratch, because I'm sick of typing that.) had sealed off the cabins full of Zomponies. Dash merely flew up to the cabin and helped Fluttershy calm down, while Octavia helped Vinyl back up. Next to her, a second Octavia smacked errant Zomponies that made it past the Equestrian guard. "Err… Octavia?" The one smacking Zomponies turned and asked "What?" Twilight pointed at the one who had helped Vinyl up. "Oh. Wubsy, change before anyone else notices!" Octavia hissed to her clone. There was a small flash of green, and where the clone had been crouching, was now a surprisingly convincing Daring Do.

Back on the ground, the two guards were slowly being overwhelmed. They were good, but it seemed that the train starting and the whistle blowing was enough to attract every Zompony in Ponyville to that exact spot. It happened quicker than anypony could have imagined, when they fell. The one with the axe swung a little too hard, a little too fast, and couldn't recover quick enough to prevent being bitten, then having several Zomponies attack at once, quickly covering the poor pony. "Honeydew!" The other yelled, before whirling around and stabbing several Zomponies with the tip of his Halberd. It finally lodged in one's skull, and became irretrievably stuck. He dropped it and pulled out the bow as his comrade pushed off the Zomponies and beheaded the ones that hadn't been stabbed repeatably in the head. He'd been wounded, fatally, by one that decided that it had a taste for intestines, and he held them in with one hoof while swinging the Battleaxe in wide arcs to protect himself and the Bowpony, who would duck under the axe when necessary to avoid it and loose an arrow as he was coming back up.

Shining Armor couldn't just stand back and watch anymore. Twilight was just coming back around, and he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Sorry Twily. I'll cover you. I know you'll lead the rest out of here, and to safety. I've got my duties, and so have you." She was firmly awake now, and tears flowed freely from the corners of her eyes. "No…Please…Don't leave me…" She was being held back by Applejack and Rainbow Dash now, and she struggled to escape and help her brother. He coughed, a loud hacking cough that signified perfectly that he wouldn't last long as it was, before looking back at Twilight. "G…Goodbye, Twily. I'll see ya on the other side." The tears were flowing freely from both ponies' eyes now, as he turned back around and leaped into the battle, just as the train started moving away from the station.

He joined back with his troops, seamlessly integrating himself into their strategy as he drew a Rapier that held with his hoof, the hilt having been made specifically for him to use and fitting it perfectly. He slid in and all three of the warriors placed themselves back to back in a rough triangular formation, Honeydew wiping out swathes of Zomponies at a little further than a forelegs distance, with Xephos firing arrows into the skulls of Zomponies further away right through the eyeballs, and Shining Armor quickly executing any who made it through the gauntlet of redeath. The train finally pulled away from the station, and just before the train had put it out of its line of sight they were finally overwhelmed, disappearing under the mass of undead flesh. The magical connection that Twilight had with her brother, and always had since birth, went dead as he did.

She cried, and no one could console her as she realized that she would never see her brother again, he was dead and gone. The only comfort she could glean a shadow of was that it was true death, and that she could tell he wasn't going to become one of them. She promised she would come back, and would thank him, and would grieve properly.

Applejack lifted her hat and held it to her chest. "Thank yew, Shining Armor. Ya died a hero, and that's what matters. Good luck."

Everypony who had ever met the two echoed the sentiments, and those who hadn't did so anyway, thanking the brave stallion who'd sacrificed his life and those of his men for them, so that they could escape. It would be nigh impossible to repay them for it, but everypony swore in their heads, in their hearts, and out loud that they would all find a way somehow.

The next few hours passed quickly, as Tinkertoy slowed the train so they could hop off. To Twilight it was all a blur, her helping her friends set the balloon up to carry everypony up to Cloudsdale safely. Thinking back about it later, she couldn't remember all that much about it, not the journey, or their arrival, or any part of it really, but every pony she spoke to said she did all of the piloting herself, taught the rest of the unicorns how to make themselves lighter so they could walk in Cloudsdale safely, and finally landed perfectly before explaining to the Cloudsdale guard what happened below, without missing a single detail.

They had all been given their own quarters, and received news every hour about how Luna and Celestia were leading a massive charge themselves to take back Equestria from the horrors that had stolen it from them. Had it only been two days since Nightmare Night?

The Pegasi were doing their part as well, the braver ones personally going down to search for survivors among the rubble and wreckage, bringing lone ponies back and sending larger squads to bring back groups. Zecora had been rescued in such a way, as had the rest of the Smith family. (Supposedly they'd holed up in the farmhouse, and used respective skills to fight them off. Granny Smith had built ingenious traps that were distressingly hard to disarm due to her forgetting what she was doing right in the middle of it. Big Macintosh had simply worn really heavy boots and kicked any Zompony who tried to enter.)

In short, everything was slowly improving. But Twilight could feel that there was still something wrong, something she had forgotten, more than those she left on the surface. Some small detail in the book…

"Twilight! Twilight, come quick, you need to see this! We have a problem!" Spike screamed, running into the small dormitory. She looked out the widow, and saw a small horde of Zomponies rising out of the clouds, all Zompony Pegasi.

Ah yes, that was it. They could still fly.

(Third and Final chapter's to be posted on Halloween, or possibly the day before or after, for those of you in different time zones. Sorry about Shining Armor, but can you imagine him going out any other way? Last thing, can you spot all of the references to other Fanfics, series, and the Internet in general?)


End file.
